Fantastic Five Barnet Blogger VickiM renames her blog !

My favourite Barnet blog VICKIM57 has gone...................

Boo Hoo Hoo

But Vicki has renamed it..................

Hooray Hooray Hooray

It is now


http://citizenbarnet.blogspot.com/

So please check it out and bookmark it.

Barnet Eye weekly round up - Philistines trash Barnet

I've been in France, no internet, no papers for a week, so I've been totally out of touch with the news in Barnet. For me the big news (and sad news) is the story that Barnet Council is selling off Church Farmhouse museum.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/9167638.Farmhouse_museum_sale_sparks_anger_among_supporters/ 

I made this video about Church Farmhouse museum on the sunday before it shut. It features Gerard Rootes, the now Ex curator of the museum, giving his views on the museum. Sadly this video and a few memories are all that is left of the museum, thanks to Councillor Robert Ramsbottom and his Tory chums.


Shame on them. This is an act of philistinism. I had absolutely no doubt that this would happen, from the first moment that the cuts to it's budget were announced. Barnet Council really do make me sick. It's OK to concrete over green spaces, build mini cities in Brent Cross, build incinerators next to them, but when it actually comes to providing things for the people of Barnet to enrich their life what happens?

Museums budgets are cut
Libraries are closed
Football pitches are sold off
Grants to voluntary sector organisations are cut

So I hear you ask, how can we justify supporting the arts in these times of recession and debt?

Well lets look at a few things which haven't been cut

The pay of the CEO of Barnet Council and other senior executives
The allowances for Councillors (committee chairmen got a 50% rise)
The budget for consultants to outsources the council

Do I hear you say that "The consultants are increasing efficiency". This is complete codswallop. The Future Shape/OneBarnet/Barnet Track project has been running for over three years, has sucked millions from the coffers and delivered no net savings whatsoever. In fact if they had just concentrated on realising efficiencies using the Councils own staff and resources, they would have had enough money in the kitty to fund all of the chopped museums, libraries and other voluntary sector grants.

Whilst spending huge amounts on these consultants, they've let purchasing run out of control. This has been demonstrated by the Metpro fiasco, where £1.4 million was spent on a company which didn't even have a contract or the licenses to legally provide the services.

As for the Barnet blogs - my pick of the week. Mr Mustard notices that the One Barnet project has ceased to exist. Imagine my surprise. A week in Lourdes and we have a miracle whilst I'm away !


http://lbbspending.blogspot.com/2011/07/one-barnet-now-you-see-it-now-you-dont.html

Sadly Mr Mustard had played a nasty practical joke (we have a good sense of humour, us Barnet bloggers). Nope, OneBarnet hasn't disappeared, they've just stopped telling us how much they spend on it.

Mr Reasonable reports that he's listed a whole plethora of errors in the way Barnet Council pay invoices without proper supporting information.
http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.com/2011/07/audience-with-auditors-part-two.html

There is an absolutely fantastic post from VickiM on Colindale. Vicki shares my concerns about the fact that the council is obsessed with shiny new developments, whilst leaving existing Council victims housing tenants to rot in run down, badly maintained, pseudo slums. Top blogging Vicki - no one seems interested in Graham Park, Burnt Oak etc, it is truly shameful.
http://vickim57.blogspot.com/2011/07/colindale-can-you-feel-rhythm-or-would.html

Mrs Angry reports provides documentary evidence showing that Councillor David Longstaff is without doubt a prize cock. Which stone did they find this failed actor under?
http://wwwbrokenbarnet.blogspot.com/2011/07/recall-performance-appraisal-for.html

I would also have given a roundup of Robert Rams blog, but old lazybones couldn't be bothered to post anything, despite being responsible for selling off Church Farmhouse museum.

Barnet Eye Official : Councillor Robert Rams is not a Twat

Nope, it's not April 1st. The Barnet Eye is happy to announce that we have revoked the title of "The Biggest Twat in Barnet" which we awarded to Councillor Robert Ramsbottom. Word has reached this blog that young Councillor Sheepsjacksie has seen the error of his ways. Let me explain what seems to have happened. Last August, young Sheepsjacksie had fallen in with a right dodgy crowd (AKA. The Barnet Tories). Under their bad influence, young Bobby, who is a bit weak and impressionable, came up with the marvellous idea to close all of Barnets libraries and sell them off to Starbucks. Now as regular readers will know, this blog immediately lead a campaign to halt the process in its tracks. Poor old Bobby started to feel the heat, being regularly harangued by angry Grannies whenever he emerged from his bunker.

Now my blog stats showed that young Bobby had taken to obsessively reading my blog. At some point, the penny dropped. He suddenly realised "Hey, that Rog T is right. If I don't shut the libraries, the grannies will love me and I'll be able to poke fun at all of those nasty socialist Councils who are shutting them. I'll be a hero!". Now it is quite likely that he discussed his cunning plan with his former boss at the GLA, Roger Evans. Roger is probably the nicest and most sensible Tory in London, if not the whole world. He does good things like campaigning to keep hospitals open, writes a brilliant blog, and is a generally good egg. Now I don't know what Roger would have said, but it was most likely something like "That blogger Rog T is a genius, you'd do well to listen to him and not those dunderheads like Brian Coleman".

Anyway there was a loud clunk as the penny dropped, the Libraries were saved and hey presto, from being the biggest pariah in Barnet, the bum of the sheep became the best loved Tory in the Borough (after Kate Salinger of course). Now as part of his rehabilitation, Roger also clearly recommended that Bobby write a blog. Roger clearly would have given Bobby a few tips "Keep the voters informed, in an interesting and informative way" would most certainly have been his advice. Sadly Bobby's early efforts were rather grim and written in Barnet "Kremlinspeak". This lead to young Sheepsjacksie being awarded the inaugural "Crap London Blog" award. Sadly, as we've established, young Bobby is rather thin skinned and doubtless got rather upset. As ever, he doubtless sought the wise Council of his mentor Roger Evans. Now I've no idea what Roger would have told him, but it was probably something rather like this "Now listen Bobby, I already told you that Rog T is a genius and he's quite right, it is rather dull. Now listen, why Rog T is such a marvellous blogger is because he can be quite funny. He uses all of the tools of the trade, Irony, Sarcasm and Fantastical situationalism to illustrate his points. And don't censor the comments, use them to your advantage to display your sparkling wit".

If ever you want to cut the mustard, you'd do well to listen to him". Now I'll give young Bobby this, he's nothing if not a quick learner.  Yesterday we saw the first efforts, using Roger's wise advice.


http://robertrams.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/council-tax-mistake-isn%E2%80%99t-an-argument-against-privatisation/#comment-27

You can read it for yourself and see that the Kremlinspeak is largely gone. Best of all his comment in reply to Mrs Angry is an effort of supreme wit and irony. I suspect it may even be the work of the Great Roger Evans himself. Check this out
-----------------------------------------------
robertrams says:

April 21, 2011 at 3:08 pm

Theresa,
You will be pleased to know that there is a skilled One Barnet team in place to make sure all the contracts are watertight.
-----------------------------------------------

Now anyone who has followed the Metpro Scandal, the Catalyst Scandal or knows anything about the background to the IT system which caused the cock up, will know that Councillor Rams is what is known in the trade as "having a laugh". As being a humourless dolt is essentail to being a successful Twat, it is impossible for him to keep the title of Barnets Biggest Twat. Don't worry though, the Barnet Eye team have already started the search for his replacement.

Clarification for the rather dim and humourless : Any references to the opinions of Roger Evans regarding the intellectual prowess of the author of this blog (or anything else) is purely made up for purposes of your entertainment. Whilst both Roger Evans and myself are proud members of the League of Rogers, I'd like to state that we have at no time discussed Councillor Robert Rams, his intellectual prowess, his policy on libraries or whether he's a twat.

P.S - Roger Evans has another blog called Get Selected. He offers advice to women on how to get selected as Candidates. I'd like to suggest that he takes Mrs Angry and VickiM57 under his wing, as I think they have the potential to be the best 2 councillors in Barnet. I don't know if he helps Socialists, but if he does, then I can think of no better candidates in London.

 P.P.S. - I also noticed that Councillor Ramsbottom referred to Mrs Angry her "alleged" first name. Is this a Brian Colemanesque "We've got your number" type of threat?

P.P.P.S - Lets see if young Sheepsjacksie is "man enough" to moderate my comment on his post

Rog T says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.

April 21, 2011 at 7:22 pm

My Dearest Robert,
Does that team contain the tooth fairy? I trust you are familiar with how the “skilled One Barnet Team” have administered the Metpro contract, the Catalyst contract etc.
As to the “one person making a human error”. I trust you are aware that a well designed IT system should have what are called maker/checker controls to prevent such single points of failure.

-----------------------------

Enjoy your bank holiday !

Guest Blog : Power to The People (of Barnet)

By VickiM57,

On Monday 14 February an innocuous young man was threatened with expulsion from the public gallery at the Barnet cabinet meeting. His crime? Attempting to make a short film of proceedings on his phone.

How behind the times Barnet council shows itself to be. They act in a draconian manner to stop their own residents (to whom they are accountable) from using a piece of equipment that has become as everyday and routine as the pop-up toaster. Haven't they seen how people in the Middle East and North Africa are using social media to help them win their democracy?

I invite every resident coming to the council meeting at Hendon Town Hall next Tuesday 1 March to come with their cameraphones at the ready. Perhaps Brian Coleman will learn some manners if he knows that what he says will end up on YouTube for all the world to see before the night is out.

Oh, and who is this agreeing with the call for greater openness? This is a statement made today by none other than Eric Pickles, the Conservative Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government:

"Many councils are internet-savvy and stream meetings online, but some don't seem to have caught up with the times and are refusing to let bloggers or hyper-local news sites in. With local authorities in the process of setting next year's budget this is more important than ever.

"Opening the door to new media costs nothing and will help improve public scrutiny. The greater powers and freedoms that we are giving local councils must be accompanied by stronger local accountability.

"We are in the digital age and [the] analogue interpretation of the press access rules is holding back a new wave of local scrutiny, accountability and armchair auditors."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vickim57 is a blogger, "well known trades unionist" and the heart and soul of most of the good things going on in the Political scene in Barnet. I have the utmost respect for Vicki and I will be writing to David Cameron to recommend her for an OBE shortly. Her blog is http://vickim57.blogspot.com/ -  and I heartily recommend it to you, if you don't already know about it. I nicked this blog from her blog without telling her, because I am so tired I can't think and she says everything I would have written anyway. 

Barnet Council are selling my dead Grandma !

I really hope I don't bump into my local Tory MP, Matthew Offord tonight. The way I'm feeling about him and his chums right now, I may be tempted to "fix" his other retina, the one the "psychic mug of karma missed" (click this link if you haven't a clue what I'm talking about - http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8786187.MP_lucky_to_keep_sight_after_freak_mug_accident/ )

You may ask what they've done to get my goat now? Well let you give me a little list of people - My Mum, Dad, Grandmother, Grandfather, Godmother, Best Friend, Dad's Best Friend, Next door Neighbour - What have all of these people got in common? They are all buried in Hendon Cemetary. Barnet were boasting about how much money they make from renting the cemetry out for filming scenes from Eastenders (my Godmothers grave is featured in the picture just behind Barbara Windsors handbag) in their last Barnet First.
Check the full story here - http://www.barnet.gov.uk/007637_barnet_first_magazine%28digital%29.pdf

Barnet Council want to flog off this cemetary. A place of special meaning for many of us. Next to my Dads grave is a beautifully tended grave of an 8 month old baby, who died a couple of months after my Dad. His mum goes nearly every week, to make sure that it's tended. The baby would be 24 now.

Many thousands of people in our area visit the cemetary for quiet periods of reflection. They view the cemetary as Hallowed Ground. The trouble is that to Barnet Tories, nothing is sacred. They see the cemetary as an asset to be milked, by having film crew there disturbing the peace (I used to work in Television so I know how much respect would be given on a tight shoot schedule). As if this wasn't bad enough, now they want to flog the lot as part of their property review.

This has been done before. Westminster council sold various local cemetaries for 5p. They were left untended, plans were put in for housing developments and graves desecrated. The fiasco ended when the council spent a million quid buying them back. What amazes me is that all of our Tory Councillors and MP's think that it is a truly marvellous way to plug the hole in the finances left by their mismanagement.

I had wondered how on earth a mug could fall from a cupboard and detatch MP Matthew Offords retina. As Offord is nearly six foot tall, it seemed to defy the laws of gravity that a cup should fall sideways, rather than down. Having read the proposals to flog off the cemetaries again, I think there may be a logical explanation. A previous resident of his home, now residing in Hendon Cemetary may have chosen to take direct action ! Let's hope for the sake of Robert Ramsbottom, his home wasn't owned by any departed librarians. I'm not a believer in such psychic phenominum, but if Ramsbottom turns up at casualty with a copy of War and Peace embedded firmly in a place where the sun doesn't shine, as a result of a "freak accident", I will abandon my previous scepticism. Now my mum, who as I mentioned is buried in the Cemetary, as a lifelong Catholic always encouraged me to pray to the Patron Saint of whatever cause I was supporting when the going gets rough. The patron Saint of Libraries and philosophers is St Catherine, who was put to death on a burning wheel (hence the term Catherine wheel) and got her head chopped off when the wheel broke - my sister is named after her, due to my mums love of books and reading. When I read the story of St Catherine, I was reminded that this is what happens under repressive regimes where ignorance and brutality are used to combat reason and intellectual argument. Can it be any coincidence that the government are embarked on a policy shutting the masses out of education and Barnet are closing libraries? Could it be that they see a stupid population as one which is easier to manipulate?

On VickiM57's blog today she posted a link to all of the consultations being run by Barnet - http://www.barnet.gov.uk/index/council-democracy/consultations.htm - I am doing the same. Every one of these will result in worse services or more stealth taxes. Vicki talks of consultation fatigue. I am sorry to say that isn't a luxury we can allow ourselves to use as an excuse. I'm going to do everything I can personally do to stop the Sell off of our dead and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that those of us who are still here have decent public services. Please make a start by joining me and signing the petitions in the sidebar.

(many apologies if this particular blog is even more unhinged than normal. I am genuinely very upset by this cemetary proposal for a whole number of reasons).

I WANT A CREAM MERINGUE !

Blame Vicki Morris for this post. I don't really like cakes. I don't have a sweet tooth and I can't remember the last time I went into a shop, sat down and had a cream cake. If I ever have a pudding, which is rare, I have apple pie and custard, preferably industrial quality custard. However Vicki posted this blog today which details how her favourite cake shop has gone.

It made me come over all nostalgic. You see when I was a wee nipper, the very best treat in the world was when my big sister Valerie used to take me down to the finest cake shop in the world. I am of course talking about the long gone and sadly missed Chowens. This was located on the site of what is now Abbey National in Mill Hill Broadway. You just don't get shops like Chowens any more. It's decor (as best I recall) was pink and brown. The clientelle were predominantly ladies of a certain age with blue rinses. Youngsters such as myself were usually greeted with a sniffy glare. My mother didn't much care for Chowens as she had a lactose intolerance. She also didn't much care for the blue rinse brigade. As such a trip to Chowens was often a clandestine operation, undertaken when she was out on business.

Cake shops today aren't much like Chowens either. I can't remember the last time I saw a Cream Meringue on display. Chowens had thousands of them, all neatly lined up.  They were the king of the cream cake. The rather phallic chocolate eclair held no fascination for me, too vulgar by far. The Strawberry tart was too flashy and the cream slice was too square an boring. Nope, for me it was the Cream meringue with it's two perfectly formed cheeks. Regular readers of this blog will know of my fascination with Uma Thurman. Without wishing to be too vulgar, something about her reminds me of a perfectly formed cream meringue.

I wanted a picture of a cream meringue for this blog, but it seems that like the old ladies with blue rinses and Chowens of Mill Hill, they are long gone. If anyone knows a proper cake shop anywhere in London, where they sell cream meringues and hot chocolates, and you can eat it surrounded by old ladies with blue rinses scowling at you, please let me know. I want to take my son there just once, so he can know what it was like to be a kid in the 1960's.

If Doctor Who landed on my doorstep and I could borrow his Tardis for half an hour, I'd like to think I'd nip back to Mill Hill Broadway in 1969 and get myself a hot chocolate and Cream Meringue and get one for the boy as well. Mind you, I'd better make sure I didn't go back on a Thursday afternoon as that was early closing day and they'd be shut.

A great week in sunny Mill Hill !

Oh joy, the sun is shining, it's a bank holiday, the beer chiller is full, the sausages are in the fridge and the charcoal is in the shed. I can relax. It has been a great week for me. My daughter went back to the top of the national rankings for swimming in her age group for the 1500m freestyle after a great swim last week at the newly reopened Crystal Palace Swimming Centre. All her hard work & sacrifice is paying off. My son is off with the cubs for the cub jam. I've had a couple of great 5 a side kickabouts this week, winning both games. We've discovered a great singer at the studios, who we are currently working with. Played some early mixes to a friend who used to be head of A&R at Sony, who liked what he heard. That will be my holiday in Barbados next year ! Our music shop has just taken it's largest ever single order for equipment this week. It is to equip a local community project which we've helped develop. We've put a lot of time in to ensure they'll have great facilities & a truly groundbreaking mix of uses. Can't say anymore prior to the council's announcement, but we are proud to be involved in such a great local scheme.

It is great when local authorities spend money to improve the lives of young people. When the project is up and running, I'll take a few pictures and tell the full exciting story here. It is great to be able to report good news when councils do the right thing by there young people.

I was also proud to have been invited to attend the inauguration of the new Mayor of Barnet. No, of course I wasn't invited to the ceremony, I was invited to join the protest about cuts to the Sheltered Housing Warden Service, going on outside. Councillor Lynn Hillan and the council are trying to mislead everyone in to believing that this is a redistribution rather than a cut. If you read THIS BLOG by Vicki Morris, you'll realise what a massive porkie this is. A council which can afford civic receptions and relaid flowerbeds for the Mayoral inauguration can afford to look after its old & vulnerable. Maybe we should lobby all of the Mayors receptions, till he gets the message.

It is also great to see that our local papers are again serving the community. Hopefully the days when certain high up politicians at the council could ring up the paper and exert pressure to drop certain stories (or certain bloggers!) have gone. I think that the circulation figures for the Daily Telegraph since they started their crusade to clean up expenses has shown that the public have a taste for proper investigative journalism. If I was the editor of a National Daily paper looking for new talent, I'd be looking for they type of people who break stories, not those who slavishly rehash council press releases. Rebecca Lowe's fine story got some such recognition with a link from The Guardian. Print the stories and the readers will come !

Anyway, the Barnet Eye has taken an editorial decison to celebrate the good news and the great weather this weekend. We are not going to publish any more stories about local politicians or aything else which might ruin your day till Tuesday (unless some massive story breaks). It's all good news & fun from here. Enjoy your weekend

Vicki Morris : The Barnet People's Champion

Barnet Bloggers Bank Holiday Special

Continuing our series on the bloggers of Barnet. This week has been a great week for Vicki Morris aka VickiM57. As well as her blog, Vicki is the driving force behind the Barnet Community Campaign. I have unbounded admiration for Vicki. If she'd been hit by a bus last year, I suspect that the Barnet Tories may just have snuck through the warden cuts unnoticed. With her at the helm, there was no chance. The inauguration of the new Mayor was hijacked by the community campaign. His day in the lights was "spoiled" by a ragtag army of protestors outside, fighting for the elderly and the vulnerable. Two weeks ago Finchley High St, in Mike Freer's ward was brought to a standstill by a March organised by the BCC. Now there is much more to BCC than Vicki. She'll probably have the hump with me for pushing her to the fore, but she deserves it and I doubt that anyone else would disagree.

Vicki is unusual in a few respects. Probably 80% of political blogs are written by Tories and 95% are written by men. This hasn't stopped her blog from getting recognition. This week, the esteemed Dave Hill at the Guardian put a link to its from his London page. Now I'm not a close friend of Vicki. We've met at a few meetings & protests in the last few months. WhatI have noticed is that she is a great organiser and a great worker. Her latest blog details how the local press has fallen into line with the Barnet Community Campaign. A petition with 1,600 signatures was handed in to John Marshall, the outgoing mayor. The campaign has only been going a few months, so this should give you some idea of the effectiveness of Vicki's organisational powers.

The powers that be at Barnet spoke this week about taking on the bloggers. If I was them, the one I would truly be scared of is Vicki, because unlike me she knows what she's doing and she knows how to get results quick. Don't be deceived by her mild manners or her pleasant demeanour. When it comes to campaigning, I'm a bull in a China shop, she's a deadly skilled assassin !

Barnet Eye - Tour of the Blogs

I love Blogger and the various blogs on it. I find it fascinating to see what gets people going and what people find to write about. I guess I am a relative newcomer to it as I only got into blogger when the Edgware Times canned my "official Blog". "Don't Call Me Dave" Miller started his NOTTHEBARNETTIMES.BLOGSPOT.COM blog (now Barnet Council Watch) blog in protest at the Times pulling one of my blogs. As a result of that I became aware of the wonderful world of Blogspot. Initially I felt as though I'd been relegated from the Premier League of Blogs top the Ryman League. As time has gone on, I actually realised that Blogger is probably a better forum. More people look at it and you find out all sorts of interesting things. I'm a people person and I'm quite nosy in some ways. I appreciate a sense of humour and a bit of honesty. I think if a blog has these it works. If you "censor" yourself you fail. I religiously check the profile of all commenters on my blogs and have a look at their offerings. I generally check their commenters as well. If I see something which interests me I'll comment (no surprise there to those who know me). Strangely enough, the political persuasion of the author really has no effect on how much I like a blog. Occasionally I'll see something which makes me roar with laughter from a source I'd not have expected (CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE). Sometimes I see an idea I like which I'll put my own slant on (CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE). Some blogs just appeal to my sense of the ridiculous (CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE). Some blogs have a stream of comments that end up a million miles from where the author probably thought they were going (CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE). Finally there are things you read in blogs, which remind you of yourself (CLICK HERE FOR AN EXAMPLE)

Hope You enjoyed the little tour as much as I enjoyed finding them.